tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-346498292018-11-17T18:27:03.086-07:00Ben H Blog - Keep it Simple, Then Refactor.This blog is about getting back to basics. The .Net Framework provides many advanced\complicated features. However, sometimes the best solution is to keep it simple.Ben Hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02743195720761239141noreply@blogger.comBlogger142125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34649829.post-55000444612345236342013-08-18T20:55:00.001-07:002013-08-18T20:59:17.311-07:00Coding On Campus and Geeking out in Orlando with VS Live<p><a href="http://vslive.com/home.aspx"><img title="image" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-7ve9GAUv5XQ/UhGXINwb3zI/AAAAAAAAAFQ/U7OpqLT5_fk/image%25255B6%25255D.png?imgmax=800" width="244" height="96" /></a> <a href="http://vslive.com/Events/Orlando-2013/Home.aspx"><img title="image" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-UbB4hCiH-tY/UhGXJEoseRI/AAAAAAAAAFY/IJKvsn22FBU/image%25255B7%25255D.png?imgmax=800" width="119" height="97" /></a> </p> <p>This week I will be presenting at VS Live Redmond.&#160; I will also be presenting at VS Live Orlando in November as part of Live! 360.&#160; For those of you that are not familiar with VS Live, it is a 3 to 5 day conference featuring code-filled days, networking at night and independent education for .NET developers, software architects and designers.&#160; I love speaking at and attending VS Live because these conferences provide an opportunity to discuss technology not just teach it.&#160; Four conferences in four different locations allows for smaller more affordable conferences that benefit attendee and speaker alike.&#160; Below is the information related to my talks.&#160; If you are attending in Redmond I look forward to seeing you there.&#160; If your looking for a great conference hopefully I will see you in Orlando.</p> <p><strong><font size="3">Aug. 21 - VS Live Redmond:</font></strong></p> <p>9:15 – <a href="http://vslive.com/Events/Redmond-2013/Sessions/Wednesday/W01-Expression-Blend-5-for-Developers-Design-your-XAML-or-HTML5-CSS3-UI-Faster.aspx" target="_blank">Blend For Visual Studio</a></p> <p>3:15 – <a href="http://vslive.com/Events/Redmond-2013/Sessions/Wednesday/W17-Tips-for-Building-Multi-Touch-Enabled-Web-Sites.aspx" target="_blank">Tips for Building Multi-Touch Enabled Web Sites</a></p> <p><strong><font size="3">Nov. 21 - VS Live Orlando (<a href="https://1105registration.com/Live360/2013VisualStudioLive/registration/index.php?" target="_blank">Register Here</a>):</font></strong></p> <p></p> <p>1:30 – <a href="http://vslive.com/Events/Orlando-2013/Sessions/Thursday/VSH13-Adventures-in-Unit-Testing-TDD-vs.-TED.aspx" target="_blank">Adventures in Unit Testing : TDD vs. TED</a></p> <p>3:00 – <a href="http://vslive.com/Events/Orlando-2013/Sessions/Thursday/VSH17--Blend-for-Visual-Studio-Design-Your-XAML-or-HTML5-CSS3-UI-Faster.aspx" target="_blank">Blend For Visual Studio</a></p> Ben Hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02743195720761239141noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34649829.post-59652419582041576242013-05-16T08:32:00.001-07:002013-05-16T08:41:24.979-07:00C# Developer’s Anonymous (Defending C# in a JavaScript World)<p>Hi, My name is Ben and I am a C# developer.&#160; It’s been 1 minute since I wrote a line of C# code.</p> <p>Am I the only one that has noticed some negativity towards C# and .NET these days?&#160; All this buzz and talk about HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript has C# devs on the defensive.&#160; Lately, I feel like I need to apologize for using C#, ASP.NET, XAML and\or Visual Studio.&#160; Everyone wants to use JavaScript for everything.&#160; It looks like <a href="http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2007/07/the-principle-of-least-power.html" target="_blank">this</a> post by Jeff is 100% accurate.&#160; In the article, Jeff says anything that can be written in JavaScript will be.</p> <p>Node.js is a huge example of this.&#160; Don’t get me wrong Node is a great way to build a fast, scalable cross platform web interface for FREE!&#160; I get it, it’s FREE.&#160; However, let’s discuss the word “free” for minute.&#160; Is it free if it takes me twice as long to develop it?&#160; Is it free if I have to import all these open source modules, libraries and frameworks, some of which have licensing that forbid commercial use?&#160; Is it free if my application breaks due to a bug in a new version of one of these open source projects?&#160; To me the productivity gains I get from using IIS, ASP.NET MVC (or Web Forms), C# and Visual Studio are well worth the licensing fees required to build applications with .NET.&#160; Not to mention all the unbelievable productivity tools provided by 3rd party vendors like Telerik.&#160; In the long run, my users and customers don’t care about the backend technology as long as the architecture performs and can be scaled.&#160; They also want it done as soon as possible.</p> <p>Most of the C# developers I know love developing using .NET and Visual Studio (VS).&#160; Hardcore open source proponents might say VS is cheating.&#160; It abstracts much of the low level details and plumbing so the developer can focus on just building the application.&#160; Is that wrong?&#160; Maybe if you are writing a hardcore application that needs control over some low level operations.&#160; Most apps these days don’t need that.&#160; Plus I would argue that 3rd party JavaScript frameworks like jQuery, backbone, knockout, etc. do the same thing in the JavaScript world.&#160; To me the abstractions that VS provides are all that is right with software development.</p> <p>Ever since Microsoft killed Silverlight and provided HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript development for Windows Store Apps, C# developers get no love.&#160; TypeScript is a perfect example of this.&#160; I love TypeScript and use it to write large JavaScript based applications.&#160; But TypeScript exists for one reason, because JavaScript development is painful for C# developers that have been spoiled by the most powerful language (C#) and IDE (VS) on the planet.&#160; TypeScript is trying to bring all the features of these tools to JavaScript.&#160; Eventually it will get there and we will all be writing applications that “compile” to JavaScript.</p> <p>Visual Studio and C# produce software that runs on many different devices.&#160; The apps created with these technologies might not always run on every device but they can target a large range of devices.&#160; They might require some licensing fees, hosting fees or cloud fees.&#160; My experiences is that these fees are a reasonable cost (or even a necessary cost) for writing and deploying good quality applications. </p> <p>Finally, I want to say that I do not hate JavaScript.&#160; I find it very similar to C#.&#160; However, I miss all the value that the .NET framework and Visual Studio provides.&#160; If I can ensure the environment my application runs in will have .NET installed I will use it every time.</p> Ben Hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02743195720761239141noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34649829.post-26890545188242914572013-03-26T16:54:00.001-07:002013-03-26T16:56:47.454-07:00My VS Live Las Vegas Session Contents for TypeScript and Touch Enabled Web Sites<p>Just a couple quick links to my slides and demos from my VS Live sessions.&#160; I spoke on TypesScript and how to Build Touch Enabled Web Sites.&#160; Attendees at both sessions where great.&#160; Thanks for attending!&#160; Please fill out the session evals to let us know how we are doing.</p> <p><a href="http://www.htechinc.com/files/TypeScript.zip" target="_blank">Type Script Slides and Demos</a></p> <p><a href="http://www.htechinc.com/files/FastMultiTouchEnabledWebSitesVegas.zip" target="_blank">Touch Enabled Web Sites</a></p> <p>Thanks again for attending.&#160; More to come related to VS Live Vegas…</p> Ben Hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02743195720761239141noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34649829.post-3189039637921374082013-03-07T23:11:00.001-07:002013-03-07T23:11:50.513-07:00Telerik and KendoUI Phoenix User Group Tour 2013<p>Last week I had the honor of speaking at the <a href="http://nwvdnug.org/">North West Valley .NET User Group</a> and the <a href="http://www.sevdnug.org/Home.aspx">South East Valley .NET User Group</a> in Phoenix.&#160; As a <a href="http://www.telerik.com/">Telerik</a> Insider, Telerik sends me to different User Groups and Code Camps in the Western United States.&#160; I am not required to speak on Telerik products but in this case I did discuss how to use <a href="http://www.kendoui.com/">KendoUI</a> in both ASP.NET MVC and outside of MVC using the MVVM pattern.&#160; The talk is a great talk that shows the “how to” as well as allows the group to compare and contrast the two different patterns.&#160; The Phoenix area has some great developers and the discussions before, during and after the presentation were awesome!&#160; As I said, I’m not required to talk about or promote Telerik products but I do because I love using their tools and software.&#160; Whether you are a .NET, Android, IOS or JavaScript developer Telerik has something that will add value to your work.&#160; Here are a couple pictures I took while in Phoenix:</p> <p><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-YIbuOsyRQgk/UTmBGxV8KoI/AAAAAAAAADw/x_rq38f3ZKk/s1600-h/WP_000630%25255B5%25255D.jpg"><img title="WP_000630" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 0px 10px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="WP_000630" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-mp8eJm1-D1E/UTmBHm_4JvI/AAAAAAAAAD4/HvIjGQs63Zc/WP_000630_thumb%25255B2%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="365" height="275" /></a><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-O09kknBO_Vk/UTmBIQE0mAI/AAAAAAAAAEA/G15ICs2EeR0/s1600-h/WP_000631%25255B7%25255D.jpg"><img title="WP_000631" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 0px 10px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="WP_000631" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-XHo23Eq3jSg/UTmBJBI7teI/AAAAAAAAAEI/JM3fxfpH3sM/WP_000631_thumb%25255B4%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="363" height="273" /></a></p> <p>Here is a link to my slides and demos:</p> <p><a href="http://www.htechinc.com/files/MVVMWithKendo.zip">Slides and Completed Demo Code</a></p> <p>Thanks to Telerik for sending me to Phoenix and thanks to the Phoenix Community for having me!&#160; I’d also like to give a shout out to my company <a href="http://www.aspenware.com">Aspenware</a> for allowing me to work remotely from Phoenix for a couple days.&#160; Aspenware get’s it.&#160; I love working there!</p> Ben Hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02743195720761239141noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34649829.post-48939663117689007822013-02-27T14:11:00.001-07:002013-02-27T14:11:03.922-07:00MVP Summit 2013<p>Last week I attended the MVP 2013 Summit at Microsoft headquarters.&#160; During this conference, MVPs from around the world attend sessions designed to inform us about the latest and greatest technology coming out of Redmond.&#160; The speakers for these sessions are leading members of the product teams that actually develop the languages and tools we use to build applications on top of the Microsoft platforms.&#160; I cannot write or talk about the content of the sessions because as an MVP I have signed a NDA (Non-disclosure Agreement) that prevents me from doing so.</p> <p>The thing is, although the session content is interesting and informative, it is not the most important part of the week.&#160; It is also important for MVPs to give feedback to the product team members to help make Microsoft languages and tools better.&#160; I truly believe that one of the most important roles of being an MVP is to take feedback I receive from the community back to Microsoft.&#160; In this age of likes, tweets and forum comments it is easier than ever to give and receive feedback.&#160; In my opinion, however, this type of feedback can be tainted and lead to false results and miscommunication.&#160; It’s one thing to make an anonymous post online but it is entirely different to make that same comment and have to explain it in front of your peers.&#160; The MVP Summit is the one place to discuss these topics face to face with the people that live and breath these things on a day to day basis.&#160; This back and forth discussion is more useful and informative than any other means of communication I have ever used.&#160; I value the opportunity to give this kind of feedback.</p> <p>Finally, talking about these same technologies with some of the other MVPs in attendance is also a real treat.&#160; Over the years I have become friends with many of the attendees and I look forward to seeing them every year.&#160; Being in the same location with some of the authorities in my field is humbling and motivating.</p> <p>I look forward to next year’s Summit!</p> Ben Hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02743195720761239141noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34649829.post-86408724286995929982012-10-18T07:49:00.001-07:002012-10-18T07:49:20.916-07:00Space Shuttle Coding - SoCal Code Camp a Huge Success<p>Last weekend I spoke at the SoCal Code Camp in LA.&#160; The event was held on the University of Southern California campus.&#160; As a C# MVP and Telerik Insider, this code camp was a great opportunity for me to discuss geek stuff with my peers.&#160; Here are a few pictures from the event:</p> <p><a href="http://www.htechinc.com/files/46e9b6cea8db_6169/WP_000526.jpg"><img title="WP_000526" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 0px 10px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="WP_000526" src="http://www.htechinc.com/files/46e9b6cea8db_6169/WP_000526_thumb.jpg" width="354" height="275" /></a>&#160;<a href="http://www.htechinc.com/files/46e9b6cea8db_6169/WP_000521.jpg"><img title="WP_000521" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 0px 10px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="WP_000521" src="http://www.htechinc.com/files/46e9b6cea8db_6169/WP_000521_thumb.jpg" width="368" height="277" /></a>&#160;<a href="http://www.htechinc.com/files/46e9b6cea8db_6169/100_2850.jpg"><img title="100_2850" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 0px 10px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="100_2850" src="http://www.htechinc.com/files/46e9b6cea8db_6169/100_2850_thumb.jpg" width="356" height="268" /></a><a href="http://www.htechinc.com/files/46e9b6cea8db_6169/100_2851.jpg"><img title="100_2851" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 0px 10px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="100_2851" src="http://www.htechinc.com/files/46e9b6cea8db_6169/100_2851_thumb.jpg" width="373" height="281" /></a>&#160;<a href="http://www.htechinc.com/files/46e9b6cea8db_6169/100_2853.jpg"><img title="100_2853" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 0px 10px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="100_2853" src="http://www.htechinc.com/files/46e9b6cea8db_6169/100_2853_thumb.jpg" width="358" height="281" /></a><a href="http://www.htechinc.com/files/46e9b6cea8db_6169/100_2852.jpg"><img title="100_2852" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 0px 10px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="100_2852" src="http://www.htechinc.com/files/46e9b6cea8db_6169/100_2852_thumb.jpg" width="375" height="282" /></a></p> <p>I had two sessions during the weekend.&#160; One on Windows 8 Development for the Enterprise and the other on Tips For Building Fast Multi-Touch Web Sites.&#160; I got tons of positive feedback so I think the talks went well.&#160; Below are links to the slide decks and code samples:</p> <p><strong><font size="3">Windows 8 Apps for the Enterprise Links:</font></strong></p> <blockquote> <p><a href="http://www.htechinc.com/files/InitechDashboard.zip">Initech Dashboard</a></p> <p><a href="http://www.htechinc.com/files/InitechTPSCoverSheet.zip">Initech TPS Coversheet</a></p> <p><a href="http://www.htechinc.com/files/Windows8AppsFortheEnterprisePPT.zip">Windows 8 Apps For the Enterprise Slides</a></p> <p><a href="http://www.htechinc.com/files/SideLoadingInstallerScipts.zip">Side Loading Install Scripts</a></p> </blockquote> <p><strong><font size="3">Tips For Building Fast Multi-Touch Web Sites Links:</font></strong></p> <blockquote> <p><a href="http://www.htechinc.com/files/FastMultiTouchEnabledWebSites.zip">Fast Multi-Touch Web Site Slides</a></p> </blockquote> <p>Finally, when I signed up for the code camp I was unaware the the Space Shuttle Endeavor was being moved to it’s permanent home at the LA Science museum.&#160; When I landed in LA the shuttle was just leaving the airport on a 48+ hour journey to the museum.&#160; Here are a few shots of the shuttle heading down the streets of LA:</p> <p><a href="http://www.htechinc.com/files/46e9b6cea8db_6169/100_2826.jpg"><img title="100_2826" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 0px 10px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="100_2826" src="http://www.htechinc.com/files/46e9b6cea8db_6169/100_2826_thumb.jpg" width="357" height="268" /></a>&#160;<a href="http://www.htechinc.com/files/46e9b6cea8db_6169/100_2828.jpg"><img title="100_2828" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 0px 10px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="100_2828" src="http://www.htechinc.com/files/46e9b6cea8db_6169/100_2828_thumb.jpg" width="357" height="268" /></a>&#160;<a href="http://www.htechinc.com/files/46e9b6cea8db_6169/100_2834.jpg"><img title="100_2834" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 0px 10px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="100_2834" src="http://www.htechinc.com/files/46e9b6cea8db_6169/100_2834_thumb.jpg" width="360" height="271" /></a>&#160;<a href="http://www.htechinc.com/files/46e9b6cea8db_6169/100_2838.jpg"><img title="100_2838" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 0px 10px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="100_2838" src="http://www.htechinc.com/files/46e9b6cea8db_6169/100_2838_thumb.jpg" width="357" height="269" /></a>&#160;</p> <p>I had a great time and enjoyed meeting fellow geeks and discussing all things related to code and space travel!</p> Ben Hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02743195720761239141noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34649829.post-74011363082521641632012-10-02T21:36:00.001-07:002012-10-03T10:50:22.912-07:00Code in the Sun! (Silicon Valley Code Camp, SoCal Code Camp, Desert Code Camp and VS Live Orlando)<p>Thanks to my employer <a href="http://www.aspenware.com" target="_blank">Aspenware</a>, the <a href="http://www.telerik.com/community/insiders.aspx" target="_blank">Telerik Insider</a> program and <a href="http://bit.ly/VOSPK12">VS Live 360</a> I’m getting ready to embark on an adventure to sunny Arizona, California and Florida. </p> <p>First, I will be in the San Francisco area this weekend (Oct. 6 and 7) to speak and represent Telerik at the Silicon Valley Code Camp.&#160; I’m doing two sessions: the first on speeding up your websites and enabling them for touch browsing (<a href="http://bit.ly/T7yHO3">Session Details</a>).&#160; My second session is on ASP.NET MVC and using the Kendo UI MVVM (<a href="http://bit.ly/QnIrqC">Session Details</a>).&#160; Click <a href="http://www.siliconvalley-codecamp.com/Default.aspx">here</a> for more details about the code camp and to register for the event.</p> <p>The next weekend (Oct. 13 and 14) I will be in LA for the SoCal Code Camp.&#160; I am also representing Telerik and doing two talks at this code camp as well.&#160; The first is the same talk on speeding up your websites and enabling them for touch browsing (<a href="http://www.socalcodecamp.com/socalcodecamp/session.aspx?sid=57c2504e-a4d5-4292-9157-fd1aa2ac6394">Session Details</a>).&#160; My second session is on Windows 8 for the Enterprise (<a href="http://www.socalcodecamp.com/socalcodecamp/session.aspx?sid=160ea9a6-33bf-49ee-83c3-f165eb376f8f">Session Details</a>).&#160;&#160; The Win 8 sessions will detail how to install your Windows Store apps without using an actual “Store”.&#160; This is handy for testing and also for deploying apps inside your enterprise.&#160; To see the other sessions and register for the event click <a href="http://www.socalcodecamp.com/">here</a>.</p> <p>Next I will be representing Telerik in Chandler, Arizona for the Desert Code Camp on Nov. 17.&#160; I will be presenting all three of the presentations I mentioned above (speeding up your websites and enabling them for touch browsing, Windows 8 for the Enterprise and ASP.NET MVC and using the Kendo UI MVVM).&#160; You can see my sessions for this camp <a href="http://nov2012.desertcodecamp.com/speakers">here</a>.&#160; You can see all the sessions and register <a href="http://nov2012.desertcodecamp.com/home">here</a>.</p> <p>And for the grand finale I’ll be speaking at Visual Studio Live! December 10-14 in Orlando, FL <a href="http://bit.ly/VOSPK12">http://bit.ly/VOSPK12</a>.&#160; Providing expert solutions for .NET Developers, Visual Studio Live! is great for developers, software architects, programmers and designers who are looking for hard-hitting, practical training from both industry experts and Microsoft insiders.</p> <p>I’ll be presenting the following sessions:</p> <p>· Expression Blend 5 For Developers: Design Your XAML or HTML5\CSS3 UI Faster</p> <p>· Windows 8 Metro Style Apps for the Enterprise </p> <p>SPECIAL OFFER: As a speaker, I can extend $500 savings on the 5-day package. Register here: <a href="http://bit.ly/VOSPK12Reg">http://bit.ly/VOSPK12Reg</a>&#160; and use code <b>VOSPK12</b>.</p> <p>The extra-cool part about <b>Visual Studio Live!</b>: four events in one! This year, the event will be co-located with SQL Server Live!, SharePoint Live!, and Cloud &amp; Virtualization Live!. You can customize your conference agenda and attend ANY sessions from all four events. Register now: <a href="http://bit.ly/VOSPK12Reg">http://bit.ly/VOSPK12Reg</a></p> <p>Many thanks to Telerik for sponsoring me as an Insider.&#160; I love their tools and the people that work there.&#160; They are passionate about helping developers do their job.&#160; I’m also very thankful to the folks at VS Live for selecting me to speak at their conferences as well.&#160; VS Live conferences are the best conferences for the price out there period!</p> <p>Please visit the websites for these great events and attend as many of them as you can!</p> Ben Hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02743195720761239141noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34649829.post-59708597454588136342012-10-01T19:53:00.001-07:002012-10-01T20:02:57.130-07:00Windows 8 Development For The Enterprise Using Side Loading<p>Last week I spoke at the Denver Visual Studio User Group meeting on developing Windows 8 Metro (Windows Store) Style application for the Enterprise.&#160; The main purpose of the talk was to inform developers that these types of applications can be useful for an Enterprise.&#160; I also want the world to know that these Windows Store applications can be installed without going through the actual Windows Store using a technique called “side loading”.&#160; When you side load an app on Windows 8 you can bypass some of the rules and regulations in place for these apps and build apps that might be more useful for internal line of business apps.&#160; The details on how this is done and some links to online references are included in the slides.&#160; The Demos demonstrate some of the techniques discussed in the slides.&#160; Please download all the content and let me know if you have any questions.</p> <p><a href="http://www.htechinc.com/files/InitechDashboard.zip">Initech Dashboard</a></p> <p><a href="http://www.htechinc.com/files/InitechTPSCoverSheet.zip">Initech TPS Coversheet</a></p> <p><a href="http://www.htechinc.com/files/Windows8AppsFortheEnterprisePPT.zip">Windows 8 Apps For the Enterprise Slides</a></p> <p><a href="http://www.htechinc.com/files/SideLoadingInstallerScipts.zip">Side Loading Install Scripts</a></p> Ben Hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02743195720761239141noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34649829.post-12775477071691658522012-07-05T21:18:00.001-07:002012-07-05T21:23:57.169-07:00Visual Studio Live! Redmond Early Bird Deadline Approaching<p>Visual Studio Live! is returning to Microsoft HQ (Redmond, WA)August 6-10, 2012. If you've never attended before, it's a great opportunity to build your skills and learn from top Microsoft experts and insiders - right in the heart of the &quot;Mothership&quot; itself!</p> <p>Tracks at Visual Studio Live! Redmond include:</p> <ul> <li>Visual Studio / .NET</li> <li>Windows 8 / WinRT</li> <li>Cloud Computing and Services (such Azure and WCF)</li> <li>Silverlight / WPF</li> <li>Data Management (including SQL Server, SQL Azure and Hadoop)</li> <li>Windows Phone</li> <li>Cross-Platform Mobile (including app development for iOS, Android and WP7)</li> <li>HTML5</li> <li>Web (including ASP.NET and RESTful Services)</li> </ul> <p>The extra-cool part about Visual Studio Live! Redmond: attendees get exclusive access to the Microsoft campus, including the employee-only discount area at the Microsoft Company Store (which means stocking up on hugely-discounted software)!&#160; Here are a couple additional links:</p> <p>Speakers: <a href="http://vslive.com/events/redmond-2012/speakers/speaker-list.aspx">http://vslive.com/events/redmond-2012/speakers/speaker-list.aspx</a></p> <p>Agenda: <a href="http://vslive.com/events/redmond-2012/sessions/session-list.aspx">http://vslive.com/events/redmond-2012/sessions/session-list.aspx</a></p> <p>10 Reasons to Attend: <a href="http://vslive.com/events/redmond-2012/information/10-reasons.aspx">http://vslive.com/events/redmond-2012/information/10-reasons.aspx</a></p> <p>Register before July 10th using this code and Save $300! </p> <p>Registration Link: <a title="http://vslive.com/Events/Redmond-2012/Home.aspx?utm_source=AttendeeMktg&amp;utm_medium=Banner%20Ad&amp;utm_campaign=VNSP13" href="http://vslive.com/Events/Redmond-2012/Home.aspx?utm_source=AttendeeMktg&amp;utm_medium=Banner%20Ad&amp;utm_campaign=VNSP13">http://vslive.com/Events/Redmond-2012/Home.aspx?utm_source=AttendeeMktg&amp;utm_medium=Banner%20Ad&amp;utm_campaign=VNSP13</a></p> Ben Hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02743195720761239141noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34649829.post-32689013188230657512011-10-27T21:27:00.001-07:002011-10-27T21:29:14.218-07:00VS Live Redmond Recap. Who’s ready for VS Live Orlando?<p>Last week was VS Live in Redmond.&#160; I’m just recovering enough to write a post about it.&#160; It was a great conference.&#160; The best thing about this conference is the interaction between presenters and attendees.&#160; As a presenter I love the ability to talk offline with attendees at all the different events setup by the conference organizers.&#160; I also like interacting with the rest of the presenters at the conference as well.&#160; I really feel energized and ready to go after taking in all the information at the conference.</p> <p>I presented two sessions in Redmond.&#160; One on Internet Explorer\HTML5\CSS3 and one on using MEF to build composable applications.&#160; Both sessions went well.&#160; The attendees had great questions and were well engaged.&#160; During these sessions a few code changes and demos were done.&#160; Below are links to the updated slides and demo code:</p> <p><a href="http://www.htechinc.com/files/IE9_Dev_Overview_Redmond.zip">IE9: HTML5 Developer Overview</a></p> <p><a href="http://www.htechinc.com/files/MEF_Composition_Redmond.zip">MEF Composition</a></p> <p>Let me know if you have any feedback regarding the content of these files.&#160; Other than that I want to say thank you to all those that attended my sessions.</p> <p>After all that happened in Redmond I am jazzed to do it all again in Orlando.&#160; If you have not registered for the Orlando conference do it <a href="http://vslive.com/Events/orlando-2011/Home.aspx">here</a> now as <font color="#ff0000">early bird pricing ends next week</font>.&#160; As a presenter I love to attend the other sessions at the conference and gain as much knowledge as possible.&#160; In Redmond I was always conflicted on which sessions to attend.&#160; I’m looking forward to catching those sessions I missed in Orlando.</p> <p>Hopefully the temperature in Orlando will be a bit warmer as well.&#160; See you there.</p> Ben Hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02743195720761239141noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34649829.post-54406167733950140552011-08-29T08:47:00.001-07:002011-08-29T08:47:23.097-07:00VS Live October 17–21 in Redmond<p>We all know that PDC… I mean BUILD is coming up in a couple weeks in Anaheim, California.&#160; Microsoft is keeping all the announcements (Including a real agenda) for BUILD really close to the vest.&#160; One thing is for sure, there will be some fallout after BUILD.&#160; Many questions, rumors and suspicions will be debated out there in cyberspace.&#160; What better place to get the real answers than at Microsoft Headquarters in Redmond?&#160; VS Live in Redmond includes sessions from some of the top names in the industry, including many Microsoft Product\Program Managers.&#160; No one knows what will come out at BUILD (Or no one can talk about it until after BUILD).&#160; In the short time between BUILD and VS Live the speakers will undoubtedly be up to speed on what is going on in the Microsoft world.&#160; Join us at VS Live and have access to all the speakers to get your questions answered by real world software engineers.</p> <p>Early bird rates are available until Sept. 7th.&#160; Click on the image below to register for VS Live in Redmond and get a special speaker discount.</p> <p><a href="https://www.1105events.com/VisualStudioLive/2011Redmond/registration/reg_general_discount.php?priorityCode=vrspk17" target="_blank"><img style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 10px" src="http://www.htechinc.com/files/VSLRED%20Speaker%20Button_Hoelting.jpg" /></a></p> <p>By the way I will be presenting on HTML 5 and MEF at VS Live in Redmond.&#160; I sincerely hope to see you there.</p> Ben Hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02743195720761239141noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34649829.post-62453682574823634782011-05-24T21:47:00.001-07:002011-05-24T21:54:40.461-07:00HTML5 WebCamp - Bring Your Tent and Get Ready For Some Smores<p>I just wanted to make a quick post to inform everyone about an an all day HTML5 event coming to Colorado Springs on Friday, June 10th.&#160; The event is presented by Microsoft and includes demoes, presentations and hands-on labs.&#160; MS Developer Evangelists <a href="http://blogs.msdn.com/b/dorischen/">Dr. Doris Chen</a> and <a href="http://palermo4.com/">Michael Palermo</a> will host and present the event.</p> <p>Now for the info that will seal the deal.&#160; The thing that makes taking a Friday off work to attend this event worth it.&#160; I will make a guest appearance during some of the demoes and try to throw Michael Palermo off his game.&#160; Demoes are hard enough when you do them yourself.&#160; Now Michael will have to deal with me driving while he directs me from the backseat.&#160; Should be an enjoyable ride.</p> <p>To get more details and register for the event visit the MS Events site <a href="https://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032485243&amp;culture=en-us">here</a>.&#160; I hope to see you on June 10th.&#160; It will be epic!&#160; (As the kids say these days)</p> Ben Hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02743195720761239141noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34649829.post-72542491181860417642011-04-11T16:06:00.001-07:002011-04-11T16:07:00.155-07:00HTML 5 vs. Silverlight<p>Ever since PDC 2010 there has been tons of controversy and debate swirling around HTML 5 and what it means for Silverlight.&#160; About a week ago Scott Guthrie wrote a post that I found on the Silverlight Team Blog (<a href="http://team.silverlight.net/announcement/standards-based-web-plug-ins-and-silverlight/">here</a>) that addresses this issue.&#160; I recommend reading that post and the comments as well.&#160; When all the buzz came out about HTML 5 I saw a bunch of angry posts from Silverlight developers.&#160; Many of the comments on Scott’s post fall along the same lines.&#160; However, it has been months since PDC and people are starting to calm down and realize that HTML 5 is just another tool in the tool box.&#160; I compare this to the ASP.NET MVC release and how it affected Web forms developers.&#160; At first you feel threatened.&#160; You think that all the hard work you put into mastering Web forms or Silverlight will be irrelevant.&#160; After awhile you realize that new technologies simply give you more options when solving problems for your clients.</p> <p>My opinion is that HTML 5 and Silverlight will co-exist for a very long time.&#160; The reason is they have different usages and solve different problems.&#160; Especially in the mobile space.&#160; No matter how you slice it users like the native experience of apps on their mobile devices.&#160; I know with HTML 5 you can make websites look and feel like native mobile apps, but the experience is still just a bit off.&#160; So Silverlight will be around as a mobile development story for some time.</p> <p>I also believe Silverlight will remain for awhile because of the fact that HTML 5 is JavaScript intensive.&#160; In my opinion JavaScript is still not as friendly to work with as managed code, even with all the new libraries like JQuery and Dojo.&#160; Maybe someday the libraries and tooling will make developing JavaScript easier.&#160; Again that is not going to happen for some time.</p> <p>So, let’s review our UI choices for developing new .NET applications.&#160; There is ASP.NET, ASP.MVC, Silverlight and don’t forget WPF.&#160; I know that is simplifying things quite a bit, but in general that is what we have from a .NET perspective.&#160; Each one of these technologies have there pros and cons.&#160; The best advice I can give you is to design your applications with services and business layers so your UI is as thin as possible.&#160; If you do that, it is not really that hard to create a UI layer for every one of these technologies.</p> Ben Hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02743195720761239141noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34649829.post-27680070045220925032010-09-16T09:50:00.001-07:002010-09-16T09:50:47.194-07:00ASP.NET Authentication using WCF Authentication Service returns “AuthenticationService is Disabled”<p>I recently deployed a solution I was working on that used ASP.NET Authentication via the WCF Authentication Service.&#160; When I called the service it returned a fault exception that read:</p> <p>AuthenticationService is Disabled</p> <p>I could not figure out why.&#160; What happened was my web.config on the server was lacking the following entry to enable the service:</p> <p>&lt;system.web.extensions&gt; <br />&#160; &lt;scripting&gt; <br />&#160;&#160;&#160; &lt;webServices&gt; <br />&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160; &lt;authenticationService enabled=&quot;true&quot;/&gt;&#160; <br />&#160;&#160;&#160; &lt;/webServices&gt;&#160;&#160; <br />&#160; &lt;/scripting&gt;&#160; <br />&lt;/system.web.extensions&gt;</p> <p>I hope this helps solve your problem.</p> Ben Hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02743195720761239141noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34649829.post-15018639604022580122010-09-16T09:43:00.001-07:002010-09-16T09:45:24.265-07:00ASP.NET Authentication using the WCF Authentication Service is Not Working<p>I’ve used ASP.NET Authentication on a handful of projects.&#160; I am using it now as well and I ran into some strange issues that I wanted to pass along.&#160; First of all <a href="http://blogs.infosupport.com/blogs/willemm/archive/2010/03/08/using-asp-net-application-services-from-silverlight.aspx">this</a> is one of the most useful post I found on using the WCF Authentication Service.&#160; Read that post for a good step by step guide.</p> <p>I had everything setup and it appeared to be working.&#160; When I would call the Login method on the service I got back true telling me everything was working.&#160; However, the very next line I would try to call a method on my custom service that resided on that site and I would get an unauthorized request.&#160; I pulled my hair out on this for a long time until I found this new .NET Framework 4.0 entry in the web.config.</p> <p>&lt;machineKey validationKey=&quot;Your Key&quot; decryptionKey=&quot;Your Decrypt Key&quot; validation=&quot;SHA1&quot;/&gt;</p> <p>This new entry is needed for applications that run on separate servers to talk the same language when doing authentication.&#160; Obviously you will need generate your own keys for your sites but this fixed it for me.&#160; This entry is needed on both the server calling the Authentication Service as well as the server hosting the service.</p> <p>There could be multiple reasons authentication fails, but this is the one that bit me and took a long time to figure out.&#160; Hopefully this will save you the trouble I had to go through to get this fixed.</p> Ben Hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02743195720761239141noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34649829.post-74191708497468141932010-06-30T15:59:00.001-07:002010-06-30T16:00:26.193-07:00Server Side and Client Side Caching with .NET and the Microsoft Sync Framework<p>I recently presented at the <a href="http://www.denvervisualstudio.net/Default.htm#Meeting">Denver Visual Studio User Group</a> on this topic.&#160; The approach I took was to start with an out of the box working Silverlight application and then tweak to using caching for performance reasons.&#160; The next step is to persist that cache on the client side to make it even faster and not even require a round trip to the server.&#160; After that I took it even further by saving the entire data structure to isolated storage to allow offline use of the application using the out of browser option of Silverlight.&#160; Finally I expanded it even further by turning it into a WPF application that stored the data in a local SQL Server data base that was synced back to the server using the Microsoft Sync Framework.&#160; To me this is a pretty natural progression of an application.&#160; Build the prototype and then tweak it through different phases to expand it’s capability.</p> <p>While building these demos I had to refactor a bunch of things through the progression of the changes.&#160; This again to me is very natural.&#160; I find that if I start by simply solving the problem the pieces of the system that need to be refactored and extend become crystal clear in the end.&#160; Where as if I try to architect the application for every possible future change I tend to end up with an over architected system.&#160; Again keep it simple and refactor later.</p> <p>I think we all know caching is an essential part of almost every web based application.&#160; That was the gist of the first part of the presentation.&#160; The last part showed some of the pros and cons of the Microsoft Sync Framework.&#160; There is some great documentation around this framework <a href="http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/sync/default.aspx">here</a>.&#160; If you are new to the sync framework I suggest taking the time to read through a couple of these docs to understand how it works.&#160; My slides also contain some of information regarding the sync framework.&#160; My personal take on it is it is pretty easy to get started with.&#160; The issue I have is what happens when you get errors.&#160; Synchronizing two data sources is by nature a difficult process and errors will occur.&#160; Using this framework is kind of like using a black box.&#160; You sometimes want more control than you are going to get.&#160; Bottom line if I was looking to sync multiple data sources I would start with this framework.&#160; It is a no brainer to get started with and provides a ton a cool functionality.&#160; However, if I started having issues I might revert back to my old ways of just building a sync tool for my own need.</p> <p>I had a great time presenting and putting together this talk.&#160; Below is a link to the slides and the completed solution if you are interested.</p> <p><a href="http://www.htechinc.com/files/erp.zip">Demos and Slides</a></p> Ben Hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02743195720761239141noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34649829.post-58218390381910036562010-03-20T22:10:00.001-07:002010-03-20T22:10:20.254-07:00SQL Server, SharePoint and .NET Virtual Conference – VIP Code<p>I’m happy to say that I am presenting for the SSWUG.ORG Spring '10 Ultimate Virtual Conference.&#160; This is a three day conference full of great information related to the Microsoft stack.&#160; Most presenters are MVPs but all are industry leaders who share their real world experience during their fifty minute sessions.&#160;&#160;&#160; The cost of the conference is $190 for early birds.&#160; Check out a list of all the great sessions and register at <a href="http://www.vconferenceonline.com/shows/spring10/uvc/" target="_blank">www.vconferenceonline.com</a>.&#160; You can get a $30 discount if you use my VIP code of BHOELTINGSPVC10.&#160; Enjoy!</p> Ben Hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02743195720761239141noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34649829.post-46740936140212742482010-03-20T21:55:00.001-07:002010-03-20T21:59:22.718-07:00Design Patterns and Best Practices Using the ADO.NET Entity Framework<p>The last session I taped was a demo filled session on how to create a robust multi-layer application using the ADO.NET Entity Framework as the data access layer strategy.&#160; Entity Framework is not perfect.&#160; However, it is a great starting part that allows for extensibility that makes is a nice part of an application’s architecture.&#160; EF 4.0 has taken great strides and gives the developer total control of the generated code via T4 templates.&#160; This session contain less than 10 slides and pretty much 40 minutes of demos.&#160; If you are interested in watching this session please sign up to attend the virtual conference.&#160; The cost is minimal ($190) and the ROI will be huge.&#160; Check out a list of all the great sessions and register at <a href="http://www.vconferenceonline.com/shows/spring10/uvc/" target="_blank">www.vconferenceonline.com</a>.&#160; You can get a $30 discount if you use my VIP code of BHOELTINGSPVC10.&#160; Enjoy!</p> Ben Hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02743195720761239141noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34649829.post-80842143885904146042010-03-20T21:42:00.001-07:002010-03-20T21:58:44.387-07:00Building a Multi-Page Silverlight Application<p>I also finished taping my Silverlight session.&#160; In this session we start from scratch with building a Silverlight navigation application.&#160; We walk through setting up the URI mapping to provide deep linking.&#160; We also wire up some data that the deep linking will use to look up data based on the link.&#160; This is a great session for anyone thinking about using Silverlight to build a multiple page applications.&#160; If you are interested in watching this session please sign up to attend the virtual conference.&#160; The cost is minimal ($190) and the ROI will be huge.&#160; Check out a list of all the great sessions and register at <a href="http://www.vconferenceonline.com/shows/spring10/uvc/" target="_blank">www.vconferenceonline.com</a>.&#160; You can get a $30 discount if you use my VIP code of BHOELTINGSPVC10.&#160; Enjoy!</p> Ben Hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02743195720761239141noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34649829.post-43119805891584516702010-03-20T21:32:00.001-07:002010-03-20T22:00:20.333-07:00Beginning C# and Object Oriented Programming<p>I just finished up taping of two sessions for the SSWUG virtual conference.&#160; The sessions were Beginning OOP with C# part I and II.&#160; I think the sessions went well.&#160; The sessions walk through the basic concepts of creating and using objects.&#160; They start simple and expand to refactor the solution as the business requirements change.&#160; If you are new to C# and trying to make sense of it all these are the sessions for you.&#160; If you already understand the basic concepts of OOP, in part II we dig into some more advanced topics related to interacting with database and saving, updating and deleting the data in your objects.&#160; I think there is something for everyone in this two part series.&#160; If you are interested in watching these sessions please sign up to attend the virtual conference.&#160; The cost is minimal ($190) and the ROI will be huge.&#160; Check out a list of all the great sessions and register at <a href="http://www.vconferenceonline.com/shows/spring10/uvc/" target="_blank">www.vconferenceonline.com</a>.&#160; You can get a $30 discount if you use my VIP code of BHOELTINGSPVC10.&#160; Enjoy!</p> Ben Hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02743195720761239141noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34649829.post-56687444856346411452010-03-01T22:20:00.001-07:002010-03-01T22:20:20.041-07:00Rocky Mountain Tech Trifecta - .NET Beginner’s Track<p>Last Saturday was the 2nd annual Rocky Mountain Tech Trifecta.&#160; Just like last year it was a great event.&#160; For a list of the speakers and topics go to the site for the event <a href="http://www.rmtechtrifecta.com" target="_blank">here</a>.&#160; <a href="http://julieyack.blogs.com" target="_blank">Julie Yack</a> organized the event this year and it was awesome once again.&#160; <a href="http://msmvps.com/blogs/kathleen/" target="_blank">Kathleen Dollard</a> put together a beginners track and <a href="http://blog.dotnetspeech.net/" target="_blank">Jeff Certain</a>, Drew Devault and myself where lucky enough to do the presentations.&#160; Jeff did a great job going over the best practices related to architecting an application.&#160; His main point was that coding furiously with no design in a bad idea.&#160; Instead use UML and other technologies to design the architecture first.&#160; It might take a bit longer at the start, but it will save time in refactoring and backtracking later.</p> <p>The topic of my talk was beginning ASP.NET.&#160; It is almost impossible to decide on how to talk about ASP.NET in a 75 minute session.&#160; Most of the audience was familiar with HTML and JavaScript concepts.&#160; So, I decided to focus on how to utilize ASP.NET to help extend the concepts and languages you already know.&#160; I talked about code behind and how it automatically wired up events and some state management.&#160; We also talked a bit about master pages and themes.&#160; At the end I showed a bit more advanced stuff like AJAX and the <a href="http://www.asp.net/ajax/ajaxcontroltoolkit/samples/" target="_blank">AJAX Control Toolkit</a> to display some of the power of ASP.NET.&#160; After my session I created a basic media player to fit in the application using Silverlight.&#160; Drew also created a media player that worked outside the browser and was not integrated into ASP.NET.</p> <p>In the end I think it was a great day.&#160; Below are the slides and demos from my session.&#160; The demos do not include the final version of Jeff’s code or Drew’s Media player.&#160; They are my web application and the architecture as it was when I started.&#160; Thanks to those that attended and let me know if you have any questions.</p> <p><a href="http://www.htechinc.com/files/GettingStartedWithASPNET.zip" target="_blank">PowerPoint Zip</a></p> <p><a href="http://www.htechinc.com/files/mediaplayer.zip" target="_blank">Demos</a></p> Ben Hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02743195720761239141noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34649829.post-13777261978699123612010-02-05T21:39:00.001-07:002010-02-05T21:39:09.998-07:00Free .NET Events in Colorado<p>I just wanted to let everyone know about some upcoming events in the Colorado Area.</p> <h5>Rocky Mountain Tech Trifecta is coming on Feb 27th in Denver.&#160; This is a free event that is comprised of sessions on almost any of the Microsoft product lines.&#160; I will be presenting in the beginners track on building a front end using ASP.NET.&#160; For more information and to register visit the link below.</h5> <p><a href="http://tinyurl.com/RMtrifecta">http://tinyurl.com/RMtrifecta</a></p> <h5>MSDN Events Presents: Cloud Computing and Azure on Mar 9th.&#160; This is a free event also in the Denver.&#160; Again for more information use the link below.</h5> <p><a href="http://tinyurl.com/MSDNCloud">http://tinyurl.com/MSDNCloud</a></p> <p>I also wanted to let everyone know about the South Colorado .NET User Group.&#160; We meet on the first Tuesday of the month.&#160; This last Tuesday we had a great presentation from Joe Wilson on ASP.NET MVC.&#160; If you are not a member of out group you should be.&#160; Below is a link to our site.</p> <p><a href="http://www.southcolorado.net">http://www.southcolorado.net</a></p> Ben Hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02743195720761239141noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34649829.post-27244957098463167932009-10-06T15:28:00.001-07:002009-10-06T15:28:42.383-07:00Birds of a Feather (BOF) at PDC 2009<p>I’m excited to announce that I will be leading a BOF session at PDC 2009!&#160; The topic is related to something we discussed at the Denver Visual Studio User Group a couple months ago.&#160; At that meeting we talked about the issue of deciding on a front end technology for web applications.&#160; There are a bunch of technologies out there and deciding on the right one can be overwhelming.&#160; The nice thing about this topic is there really is not a right or wrong answer, which makes it perfect for a BOF session.&#160; If you are going to PDC be sure to attend this session so we can discuss the topic as a community.&#160; Here is a link to the details:</p> <p><a title="http://www.pdcbof.com/post/203606737/bof-session-should-i-use-silverlight-mvc-or-web" href="http://www.pdcbof.com/post/203606737/bof-session-should-i-use-silverlight-mvc-or-web">http://www.pdcbof.com/post/203606737/bof-session-should-i-use-silverlight-mvc-or-web</a></p> <p>See you there!</p> Ben Hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02743195720761239141noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34649829.post-32129457364950496632009-10-01T08:19:00.001-07:002009-10-01T08:19:05.125-07:00.NET Rx Framework – A New Way To Handle Asynchronous Programming<p>I literally just read this article and wanted to get it out here for people to read.&#160; <a href="http://reddevnews.com/articles/2009/10/01/net-rx-framework.aspx" target="_blank">This article</a> outlines some of the comments made by some of the people behind the technology.&#160; Give it a quick read and go do some more research.&#160; <a href="http://www.bing.com/search?q=.NET+Rx+Framework&amp;FORM=MSNH11&amp;qs=n" target="_blank">Here is a Bing search</a> I did and there is a bunch of good info on it.&#160; I don’t think it is ready for production currently.&#160; However, I believe this is going to be a big part of VS 2010 and how we deal with the asynchronous nature of programming to services over a network. </p> Ben Hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02743195720761239141noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34649829.post-65418588369805644572009-09-17T09:11:00.001-07:002009-09-17T09:13:30.658-07:00Microsoft AJAX CDN (Plus jQuery)<p>I just saw this today and it looks cool.&#160; Let me give you the high level overview and then you can go to Scott Guthrie’s detailed post.&#160; A while back I started to use jQuery to help with all my JavaScript coding.&#160; I really like it.&#160; Even if you don’t use the really advanced features it is a huge help just selecting and operating on elements client side.&#160; If you want some more info on jQuery just search the web and you will find tons of good documentation out there on the blogosphere. </p> <p>So, one of the hassles with jQuery is that you have to include the libraries in script tags on your page in order to use them.&#160; This is not a huge deal, but it can be a pain if you want to use the libraries in multiple projects and maintain one central version of the jQuery libraries.&#160; That is were the Microsoft AJAX CDN comes into play.&#160; It is a Microsoft hosted version of both the AJAX libraries and the jQuery libraries.&#160; So, you can point to a Microsoft URL and bring in these libraries.&#160; This will find the location that is closest to your user and bring down the libraries from the cache on that server.&#160; Should be a much faster solution for everyone.&#160; Check out the details on Scott Guthrie’s blog <a href="http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2009/09/15/announcing-the-microsoft-ajax-cdn.aspx">here</a>.</p> Ben Hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02743195720761239141noreply@blogger.com0